Illinois...

[chickendreams24]

New Turkeys here too.. two yellow and two brown..
View attachment 1436496

Maybe it's the lighting but those two little brown ones in the above photo look different to me than say a bronze turkey poult. Am I right?

Did we ever get confirmation of color on the whites?

Eek I'm just so excited they're so stinking cute! I never thought I'd be this excited for turkeys!

 

[Molpet]

Maybe it's the lighting but those two little brown ones in the above photo look different to me than say a bronze turkey poult. Am I right?

Did we ever get confirmation of color on the whites?

Eek I'm just so excited they're so stinking cute! I never thought I'd be this excited for turkeys!

they look different to me too...
have to wait on the color.. right now they look like palms, white with some black coming in....but so did the tom when he was little.. he has lots of color now and little white comparatively

 

[Molpet]

poult

New Turkeys here too.. two yellow and two brown..
View attachment 1436496

well I am glad I took a pic. there are now 1 yellow and 2 brown poults.. in less than 2 hours, in the back of a 24' coop, she has lost a poult. I heard they were bad mothers their first time but this has to be a record.
I heard a commotion and went out to look. I could hear her rilled up and a lost chick.. The chick was left in the coop and it's mom was on the outside trying to get to it. the turkey hen was lunging at the chicken hen through the cattle panel coop. When I took the pic there were 3 chicken hens with chicks in that end of the coop...I hope the poult ran out with a chicken hen... its not with the one who had the chick in the coop... not sure where the other hens are.. hiding in the berry bushes somewhere cool I guess..I looked in nest boxes, between stuff ,..no poult is crying that it is lost... warm enough in the coop that it might not need a warm hen ... couldn't look in the bedding by the hen because she got very upset... she doesn't look as to where her feet are and poults

should be interesting at roost time tonight. Hopefully she will let the chickens in to roost.

 

[Molpet]

well heard another ruckus and 2 coyotes were at the electric net looking at the chickens... didn't seem phased by me looking at them.. I went and got the pistol and forgot I had the safety on .. duh...they wandered out of sight behind the chicken yard.. so I went the other side and sure enough they were coming up the other side of the chicken yard... I don't think I hit them but they ran as fast as they could. maybe they will stay away during the day now..


I looked again for the poult and found in at the other end of the coop.. where I had looked before..between a nest box and coop.. not a peep out of it.. seems ok and back with mom

eta the fence charger is not working because it got full of little bitty ants

 

[chickendreams24]

So glad the little poult turned up and was okay.

Scary about the coyotes! Thankfully things have been pretty calm here predator-wise. Knock on wood.

Everyone is saturated here but otherwise okay. Thankfully the babies in the back side of the coop are all okay and it stayed pretty dry.

 

[Life is Good!]

well heard another ruckus and 2 coyotes were at the electric net looking at the chickens... didn't seem phased by me looking at them.. I went and got the pistol and forgot I had the safety on .. duh...they wandered out of sight behind the chicken yard.. so I went the other side and sure enough they were coming up the other side of the chicken yard... I don't think I hit them but they ran as fast as they could. maybe they will stay away during the day now..


I looked again for the poult and found in at the other end of the coop.. where I had looked before..between a nest box and coop.. not a peep out of it.. seems ok and back with mom

eta the fence charger is not working because it got full of little bitty ants

So glad the little poult was found!
Pretty brazen coyotes too...so glad all is well.

 

[Faraday40]

Wow! Coyotes during the day walking around - while people are watching!!!!

Reminds me of the fox we had hanging around last year. It's a pain, but this year, we actually "put the chickens to bed" around 5- 6pm. It's not easy since the birds want to stay out until close to sunset. The darn fox would come visit as early as 5-7 pm and sometimes I'd see him/her on top of the coop when I go out at 8am. Because the time varies, we try to keep the dog outside when chickens are out. The dog is the only effective deterrent. Our dog cannot be outside all the time. There are periods of rain, intense heat, or intense cold and feeding time , when the dog must be inside. To our benefit, our yard & all 3 surrounding us, have dogs.

We still have 3 poults today (no new chicks; no loss of life.) The white turkey has a herniated navel but made it with no intervention. Twice a brown poult fell out of the nestbox. I was going to ready a temp house brooder to provide some TLC, but decided to keep them with mama hen. I added a piece of thin, hard plastic to make a taller wall to keep them in. I also added some turkey feed so mama & poults had snacks while waiting for chicken siblings. (I don't want to move the hen until all or most eggs hatch. Once hatched, I have no problem moving a broody & her chicks. My big brooder is empty & all set up for Jewel.

It's a little crazy in the backyard right now. I have SIX broody hens!!!! Four have chicks, Jewel is hatching as I type, and the last (Cookie my champ broody) has eggs due in 2 weeks. I sold & rehomed many chicks, so the broody hens are now free ranging with small manageable number of chicks. However, each hen thinks she's queen & picks fights. My roosters are working overtime to keep the peace.

 

[Molpet]

Maybe it's the lighting but those two little brown ones in the above photo look different to me than say a bronze turkey poult. Am I right?

Did we ever get confirmation of color on the whites?

Eek I'm just so excited they're so stinking cute! I never thought I'd be this excited for turkeys!

to show you how they change...this pic is of the 2017 poults before I got them from Teri. I got a brown, the redish one and a white one

what they grew up to looked like

the brown one is a hen and looks like a bronze, but with the white poults she has some other genes

the red one ( he went to freezer camp) ...in the middle.. 2016 naris behind him and the butt of the white one to the left

and the white one top left ( pic of just him wouldn't load)
some have said he is a calico and some said he is a sweetgrass

 

[Molpet]

2017 white poult this spring .. one of 3 possible fathers of 2018 poults

 

[BReeder!]

Hello, everybody! I haven't been on here since April. I started a new position at work, and have been crazy busy at home as well. If you happen to recall, this is our first year with chickens (or any fowl for that matter). We have 5 lovely (at least most of the time) hens.
My hens devour any greenery they can get to. We were letting them have the run of the garden patch, but now that plants are growing they are confined to the run behind the greenhouse (30'x5' footprint for the run). They used to really enjoy eating weeds (and some of our desired plants as well). I've started tossing piles of weeds into the chicken run as I pull them. Any harm in doing this? Are there weeds common in the area that I should watch out for to avoid giving them?
Just to clarify, the hens still get pelleted chicken feed. I'm just trying to supplement their diet with the things that they appeared to be eating naturally when able to do so.